Tuesday, March 17, 2009

T - 7 weeks

Hi Everyone~
With family & friends near & far, I thought it would be fun, (& much easier) to keep everyone up to date via this blog. I'm very new to this sort of thing, so please bear with me. I'll do my best to keep this thing as up to date as possible.
The Brown Family has been so busy this year. I thought things would slow down & get easier. BOY was I wrong. This post might get long. I'll try to keep it short, but would like to get everyone up to speed on what we're up to. Posts after that should be short right ;-)
Mollie is busy with gymnastics & Sunday School. She loves doing both. In February, we had the opportunity to get her into some hip hop & ballet dance lessons. A 4 week trial run. She had a blast! Class was on Wednesdays from 10:30 - 11:15am. Mommy & Daddy were both busy at work during that time, so Grandma Lynne & Grandpa Mike did the honors. Reports show that after dance class, they hit the local McDonald's and Mollie ordered herself a cheeseburger, french fries, orange soda & ketchup & ate EVERY last bite. I still swear that they had the wrong kid. When she was faced with the decision as to whether she would like to take dance lessons, or continue on with Gymnastics, she of course picked Gymnastics. She really likes her coach Kylie & loves to tumble. Rob said that she walks the high beam with no assistance now. We register her for Kindergarten on March 31st & Spring soccer starts April 4th. I'm not sure who will be more worn out, Mollie, or Mommy & Daddy.
Ava is your typical 2 year old. She's into everything & tests our every patience. She talks non stop. Most of which we can understand, but I think she throws a little of her own language in just to keep us on our toes & guessing. She LOVES stories! I guess she could want us to do worse. Problem is that I can't say no & she's figured that out. Especially when it comes to bed time. Our other obstacle is going to be the outdoors. Ava loves to play outside. Doesn't matter if it's cold or not. It's been beautiful here lately, so we've been outside more. She HATES to come inside! We're still working on potty training, slowly but surely. I need to figure out how to get her to tell me before she goes rather than after. I'm open to suggestions!
Rob has been a TROOPER! Without him & my brother, I'm not sure what we would do. Our house has been just about completely overhauled. It started out as a little project & grew into 4 HUGE projects. We started upstairs, wanting to fix the sheetrock nails that were starting to push back through the wall. Matt & Rob cut out all of the nails & replaced them with screws, then filled the holes, taped, textured & we painted the walls in the livingroom & foyer. (By the way, Rachel & I helped too!) We also scrapped all of the popcorn junk off the ceiling, fixed a spot in the ceiling between the dining & living rooms, fixed the ceiling in Ava's room and then painted them. Rob crawled up in the rafters & fixed the ceiling fan over the foyer, then Matt's friend Steve came over & stretched the carpet in the livingroom & Mollie's room. After that project, I was in the laundry room starting the laundry, (this was at 11:30pm on Saturday night, we had a party planned at our house the next day at Noon for the Daytona 500,) when Rob came down to talk to me & said "What the hell is going on with that wall". I turned & looked & the wall behind the washer was SOAKED from ceiling to floor. We came to find out that the return sewer pipe had broke at the 45 degree angle where it came into the basement from the upstairs. So, Monday, with the help of Rob, my dad & Matt, we pulled EVERYTHING, (and I mean everything, WOW I have a lot of Scrapbooking stuff) the sheetrock came down, carpet went out, the pipe was replaced, the studwall was basically rebuilt, new sheetrock went up, along with tape & texture. We decided not to put carpet back down, but instead to paint the floor. Rob mixed up the cleaning solvent to prep the floor on a Tuesday evening, went downstairs to start & when he got down to the Laundry room, found water on the floor that had run down the new sheetrock. Not a happy camper to say the least. He figured out that the hose upstairs in the kitchen sink was leaking & running down the pipe & down the wall onto the floor. Off to Lowes we went to find a new faucet for the kitchen sink. After that problem was solved, we painted the laundry room floor & walls and replaced all of the electrical outlets, switches & covers. We're waiting on cabinets, which should come tomorrow. Oh yeah. Once he got the laundry room done, the light switch in the downstairs bathroom broke & had to be switched along with the electrical box that housed it!
Now we're in the process of painting the bunk beds that we got for the girls' bedroom. All of this started on February 9th, 2009. I'm afraid to say that we're almost done for fear of what might come up next. Oh well. "Welcome to the world of happy homeowners" as my dad would say. We roll with the punches, and I have to say, that I think Rob & I take a bit more pride in everything knowing that it's our blood, sweat & tears that have accomplished everything. His more than mine. Oh yeah, last week, we received a letter in the mail from Stockholm Engineers stating that the city will be replacing water mains & resurfacing Cheyenne Drive & Cheyenne Court beginning in May. Construction will hopefully be complete in September! Rob & I have the stroller & umbrella's in the back of the van all ready. I guess I look at it as a blessing in disguise. All that walking will hopefully help shed some of this baby weight that I'm gaining!
Baby # 3 is still on schedule to arrive the beginning of May as long a s my blood pressure stays where it's at. So far so good. 120/73 at my last appointment. We'll find out more tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Well, I think that's long enough for today. I'll do my best to keep this up to date.

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